Vehicle display assemblies typically display information on one or more display surfaces to the occupants of passenger and commercial vehicles. One such vehicle display is an instrument cluster having a speedometer and/or other instrumentation to display important information and values to the vehicle occupants. Conventional instrument cluster assemblies typically include a housing and a display surface. One or more light sources are typically mounted to illuminate the display surface within the housing. Generally, a lens is mounted toward the front of the housing between the vehicle's occupants and the illuminated display surface to protect the display surface and instruments. The one or more light sources illuminate the display surface/instruments making the displayed information more visible to the vehicle occupants.
Other known instrument clusters use light emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted within the housing to illuminate cluster surfaces. Some vehicle display assemblies also have a rigid plastic component mounted in the housing to provide ornamentation. These conventional rigid components are disadvantageously formed of polycarbonate and polymethyl methacrylate. Generally to maximize an aesthetic effect, known rigid components are connected to the housing to allow the display of light transmitted by the LEDs through the rigid component. These components are undesirably rigid and cannot be used with other display geometries due to their rigidity. This undesirably decreases or eliminates the interchangeability of the rigid component for vehicle display assemblies having different geometries since each rigid component must be molded to accommodate a particular device's geometry.
Accordingly, there is a need for a light conductor that is flexible to illuminate different contours, shapes or surfaces and increase the visibility of vehicle display assemblies for providing a more universal light guide for different vehicle display applications.